Leadership Style - Steve Jobs - Case Study Example

Introduction: Leadership is a vast concept that entails adopting a particular manner and mechanism towards accomplishing the goals and leading. Going by the literature and academic understanding of literature, large number of leadership styles and theories can be investigated that are commonly adopted by the globally recognized leaders. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are two of the most important and influential names that the present day generation have come across perhaps more commonly than any other individual of this era. The two individuals have/ had particular style of leadership making them a case of understanding leadership role and steps taken by them towards accomplishing the goals. This paper looks into the leadership styles of each of the individual, further assessing the role of each of them in management terms and technical understanding through the S.W.O.T analysis. Further a generic comparison between the two individuals and the styles that were adopted in particular by each of them. Individual description: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are the two names without whom, the modern day digital world of computing would not be as colorful as it is today. Both were entrepreneurs in their own right who came about with ideas that gave a total new dimension and outlook to the digital media and digital interfaces that we use in our routine lives. Apart from their entrepreneurial skills they are most actively renowned for their leadership skills. Each through their skills, leadership qualities and other individual traits set examples of types of leaderships that may be implemented in the different spheres of corporate world to any other business or digital function and that in turn will allow for maximum success rate and career oriented goals accomplishment. S.W.O.T Analysis of Steve Jobs: Strengths: Steve Jobs brought along number of strengths to his overall concept of business and services delivery. The first and foremost was that of being first to market. The first to market has given Steve Jobs an edge over others. This enables them capturing the market in advance with the new product or service. First to market is an important business and management concept which entails capturing the market with regard to novelty. Steve jobs had a clearly defined philosophy of innovation. This came about as the prime edge against any other existent force in the market at that time. Innovation means bringing about new models, new ideas and new concepts that always catches the attention of the customers. Owing to this feature, Steve Jobs was known as the innovator. Another strength that Steve jobs enjoyed was being the sole brain behind the ideas. He was the individual who started the whole concept of Apple Computing from inception. This enabled him working with total freedom without needing to amend or adjust to the changes and challenges in form of the previously existent frameworks. The other major strength that is being attributed to Steve jobs is the ability to convince people and enable them achieving what he stood for. Catering for the needs of his employee was another salient feature of Steve Jobs leadership style. This allowed for sense of ownership and increased loyalty towards the organization by the employees and direct impact fell upon increased output and better performance of the organization. Weakness: The first and foremost weakness is the potential successor. It can be said that Apple Inc. has not been able to find a replacement for Steve Jobs. This can be further evaluated from the fact that last two years since the demise of Steve Jobs, the company hasn’t been able to produce something totally out of the box which was previously affiliated with Steve Jobs. Another possible weakness that is inferred from his work was slight domination over the co workers. Often his presence showed traces of excessively dominant and unannounced authoritative influence. This was seen negatively because this led to the other people being under the cloud while Steve jobs remained the center of attention and decision making. Excessive desire towards bringing about perfection out of the deal and project at hand amounts to one of the potential weakness of Steve Jobs. This led to excessive obsession in a way which reflects negatively upon leadership skills. Opportunities: The overall creative mindset, the ideas and concepts that Steve Jobs possessed amounted to the opportunities. Further, going into the stream of innovation one after another was a continuous opportunity prospect. Expanding on the other side such as the animation industry and incorporating into the Pixar for example is an aspect of futuristic opportunity oriented move by Steve Jobs (Blumenthal, 2012,p .238). Given the fact that the modern digital multimedia entertainment is driven by animation, the introduction of Pixar served as an opportunity in this regard. Cashing in on the people’s demands by introducing something new every time made up for Steve Jobs opportunity as a whole. Fast growing digital market in terms of portable devices and gadgets is another opportunity towards Steve Jobs. The introduction of I-phone 3, followed by I-phone 4, I-phone 4-s to I-Phone 5 and beyond and the speed in which each of them has over sold the previous model speaks of the overall opportunity and market interest that promises a lot in terms of revenues and market capture. Threats: The first and foremost threat that was faced by Steve Jobs was his health which saw a constant deterioration in the later part of his work days. A constant threat in form of Apple Inc. versus rest of the industry was another threat where each aimed at outsmarting and displacing Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs from the list of top leaders in the management and digital industry. Potential excessive candidness by Steve Jobs was another threat where it was feared that his over excessively candid ways may lead to the dismay of the employees was seen as another potential weakness of Steve Jobs. A part from the biography (Isaacson, 2011) can be inferred to reveal that there were instances on display where Steve Jobs blamed others for the failures of the project or any other activity in the routine work. While his excessively dominant and credit collecting attitude was visible partially as well. Often, believing that his own set of rules and his own mindset prevailed better and effective over the pre defined set of rules of company made it a little difficult on occasions to work with Steve Jobs. The disagreements with the Apple Inc. in between where he had to quit the company was a threat to his career in between speaking of the potential inflexibility on behalf of Steve Jobs (Bahareth, 2012,p. 168). Bill Gates: Strengths: One of the core strengths that Bill Gates brought along his name was a very sound personality. Charismatic personality that appealed to nearly everyone he met with. Bringing along the philanthropic aspirations spread the good name of Bill Gates as well. Declaring his successor in an open way helped Microsoft as a whole compared to Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs. Going by the definitions and understanding of style of leadership, Bill Gates leadership style depicts a transformational form of leadership. Weaknesses: Majority of the common percentage of computer users and the Windows users only know of Bill Gates and not any other notable individuals from Microsoft. This in turn makes it a one man company who is dominant over all the decisions all the major events. Often his communication style and expressions are subjected to the desire of bringing about someone who may be able to present themselves more assertively which will benefit the organization in a more effective manner. Bill Gates has largely relied upon the operating systems and software applications. This nearly rules him out of the mobile phone sector. For example, the Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs did not limit himself to the operating systems, rather they brought about new concepts such as the touch panels, new hardware support gadgets. Opportunities: The expansion based ideas and creating new concepts serves as opportunities. Being world’s richest individual serves as an opportunity towards his future prospects. That would enable him to possibly open new dimensions, either by expanding Microsoft or creating something as effective and totally new as Microsoft that was opened couple of decades ago. Recent overtake of Nokia by Microsoft is another opportunity in offing towards Microsoft becoming a force in the field of digital communication technologies. The overall good reputation enjoyed by Bill Gates comes as an opportunity. A career that has been free of any kind of controversy serves as an opportunity not just for Bill Gates, but for Microsoft as well. Bill and Linda Gates foundation for charity is another area of opportunity (Hannaford, 2011,p. 30). Relying on the previous point of a professionally astute career, Bill Gates can take on new horizons, challenges and fields and it will nearly pay back owing to the kind of trust people show in him in return for his excellent career that was driven along the lines of professionalism and positive engagement of competition. Threats: Bill Gates still nearly tops the list of world’s richest individuals. This comes as a threat, the need to look after the large amount of capital possessed. Further, the funds raised and donated owing to the good name and repute enjoyed by Bill Gates, it comes as a threat with potential fear and misuse of the funds, not on behalf of Bill Gates, rather other people involved in the foundation and charity purposes. Individuals like Steve Jobs have been a constant threat to Bill Gates on account of being front runner technology man. Mark Zukerberg as an individual behind the unique idea of Face Book and making it the world’s largest social networking website.\ Being restricted to just operating systems with his ideas come as a threat. Bill Gates needs to look beyond operating system and come up with something as innovative and as attractive as Mark Zukerberg and Steve Jobs who did not restrict themselves to mere operating systems. The rise of other operating systems such as Android, Apple I.O.S, Linux and other emerging operating systems serve as a constant threat to Bill Gates as the pioneer behind the Microsoft Windows Operating system. Bill Gates’ Microsoft being not an open source operating system serves as another threat to his overall ideas, legacy and the item he introduced decades ago. This serves as a potential threat with reduced users interaction and work towards further improvements in the different versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. Analysis: Based on the SWOT Analysis of each of the two individuals it can be established the two individuals made for a perfect case of study of business management and leadership traits models. Each had their own areas of the interest, areas of specialization and at the same time areas of weaknesses and threats. Despite the number of weaknesses, an overall effective and influential leadership style is present in each of these individuals patterns which if followed can give out effective model patterns for leadership. The leadership styles adopted by each was comprehensive and practical with regard to the ground scenarios. Each of the leadership style adopted is applicable not just in the field of digital technology, rather other facets of modern competitive business world. The slight difference between the two emerges on number of accounts. The first is the fact that Steve Jobs sheer believe was in innovation, novelty and experimentation. This was an affair of risk. Bill Gates on the other hand, played it relatively safe and secure. He did not go out of the box in his experimentations and endeavors. Owing to this skill and risk undertaken Steve Jobs will get a bonus and point extra in this category. Another difference the two is the philanthropic movement and activity. Bill Gates takes the lead in this regard. Third major difference in the overall look back upon their performance and history is Steve Jobs bitter rivalry and troubled times with Apple Inc. in between his career. Finally, the other element of Steve Jobs difference is his innovative concepts and spreading his horizons to animation based companies and projects such as Pixar which at present is among the top animation houses in the world. Steve Jobs will find more recognition and more fame among the youth compared to Bill Gates. This is largely due to the fact that I-phone is an electronic gadget that is of high interest of the youth of modern day. Further, the innovative ideas and an individual leading from the front with regard to new concepts enables him standing a step ahead of Bill Gates. Bill Gates on the other hand enjoys more recognition among the business class and the operating system dealers. In terms of financial standing, Bill Gates stands miles apart from Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs did not make fortunes from Apple Inc. as compared to Bill Gates. Steve Jobs accomplishments and achievements come along in the form of legacy, innovation, and name behind the resurrection of Apple Inc. after the situation and relationship had gone bitter between the two sides during the 1990s decade. With regard to comparison between the two in terms of colleagues relationship and being team members, Bill Gates may stand secure in terms of good response, since Steve Jobs had a nature of thinking out of the box and aiming to come up with something unique, which in turn requires working on individual level and at times leading to working in a leadership pattern that may prompt relatively stiff actions and decision making policies. Conclusion: Unfortunately Steve Jobs passed away and is no more alive, yet his legacy, his policies and his name remain alive in form of Apple Inc.’s success and standing as the top runners in the field of modern digital technology and gadgets. While the two may have followed slightly different paths, each with their weaknesses and shortcomings still stand as the individuals who brought about a revolution in the manner in which our surroundings are colored today. It is safe to say that without their contributions and without these two names, the modern digital world may not had been this colorful, this user friendly and this customized as it is in modern day. Bill Gates has resigned from the post that he long held, and so has Steve Jobs passed away sadly, yet their legacies and their contributions remain and are all around us. Their policies, their guidelines serve as benchmark towards the leadership styles that may be adopted in the different fields of excellence. Bill Gates exhibited transformational leadership skills (Lussier & Achua, 2015,p. 339). Steve Jobs was slightly goal oriented and aiming to bring about something unique out of the equation and scenario at hand. Both gained excellence through the sheer dedication and professional ethics following. Both had the desire and ideas to bring about a change in their respective field aimed at further improving the surrounding digital world around us. Steve Jobs biography is one detailed elaboration of how the man thought and how he underwent the challenges and ideas that came across him through his entire journey of continuous struggle and excellence. References: Bahareth, M. (2012). Kings of the Internet: What You Dont Know about Them ? iUniverse Blumenthal, K. (2012). Steve Jobs The Man Who Thought Different. A&C Black Hannaford, E. E. (2011). Vision of Canada 2020: Save Canadian Medicare and Money. iUniverse Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. Simon and Schuster Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2015). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. Cengage Learning Read More